Welcome to she persisted I'm your host Sadie Saxton a 19 year old from the Bay Area studying psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. She persisted is the Teen Mental Health podcast made for teenagers by a team in each episode. I'll bring you authentic accessible and relatable conversations about every aspect of mental Wellness. You can expect evidence-based, Tina, proof resources, coping skills, including lots of DBT,
insights and education. In each piece of content, you consume, she persisted It offers you a safe space to feel validated and understood in your struggle. While encouraging you to take ownership of your journey and build your life worth living. So, let's dive in this week on. She persisted, when we avoid things that make us anxious, they could exponentially worse, the anxiety. The fear of the avoidance builds over time, and then it's even more challenging to overcome that anxiety.
If you're like, I have some anxiety, but it's not debilitating. Go use exposure therapy right now because you're going to avoid all of the pain and suffering that comes We avoid our emotions, and they amplify and intensity. Hello, hello, and welcome back
to she persisted. If you're new here, my name is Sadie. I am a sophomore at the University of Pennsylvania. Studying psychology, I started she persisted after a year and a half of intensive treatment at a residential program at a therapeutic boarding school. And today, we're pulling from a lot of what I learned in those
early days of treatment. So we're talking about OCD and we're talking about exposure therapy, we're talking about anxiety, I really do see exposure therapy as the Nick, do the solution to any type of avoidance anxiety, emotional version, whatever you want to call it, whenever those feelings come up for me, I'm like, okay, it's time for some exposure and I know that that is what is going to help lessen. Those feelings decrease, the intensity.
And it's been a long time since I've done a dedicated episode on exposure therapy. The last time that I did an exposure therapy episode was episode 56, guys. That is almost 100 episodes ago. I'm sure no one was listening at that point, that's listening now, and Feel like I discuss exposure therapy pretty frequently on the podcast so it felt like it was time to do a deep dive to give you a really educational overview on what is exposure therapy.
How can you use it? How can you implement it in your life and what I do on a routine basis to use, exposure therapy to decrease anxiety, avoidance, Etc. So when I first came across exposure therapy, it was in a therapeutic group. We had group therapy all the timer residential every single day. And one of the groups that we had on Friday is, was called Bossier to exposure. So you're doing exposure therapy to the idea of exposure therapy and practicing.
This idea of exposing ourselves to things that made us anxious or working through the hierarchy of exposure. And then we would translate it to other things in our life. I love the name of that group, still to this day and so we alternated, what we would do in the exposure to exposure group, some weeks we would learn about how exposure therapy works, what the exposure hierarchy is, which we'll get into, don't worry some
weeks. We did something called Group where you would share something that required vulnerability, whether it was an emotion, you're navigating thought you had something really personal that you wouldn't share with most people. And that really no one in that Therapy. Group knew about you. So anxiety-provoking, as you can imagine, we did karaoke Group, which was my worst nightmare to this day. I could probably use some exposure therapy around doing karaoke, because I am the worst singer.
I'm fully aware that I've known musical talents, I've accepted it, I've moved on with my life singing in front of people, gives me so much anxiety, because I No, I'm bad at. It's not like, oh my God, I don't want to sing like, no, I'm bad. Like your ears will bleed. So avoiding were avoiding. I need to do exposure therapy on that. So we would do karaoke, we do this educational piece, we would do vulnerability group, and then we would also do this thing where we was almost like a game
where you would draw tasks. It wasn't out of a hat, but you would choose a task out of a bag or something. They were cut up in little strips of paper and it would be tasks. That would typically Some sort of anxiety. And so we would go to the cafeteria McClain and we would try and barter with people. So we go to these poor people that really probably visiting a family member or doing something on campus getting a test done that. Can we trade?
You are food that we bought at the cafeteria for your food at the cafeteria. These people were public, who let these patients out, what the heck is going on, but it was really great for social anxiety. So there was other things, like go up and start a conversation with someone ask for someone's phone number random, things like that. At that cause social anxiety, if you're socially anxious. And so you would go into the community. This little little campus at McLean Hospital and do these
tasks to provoke some anxiety. But then cope with it, work through it and increase your emotional resilience to social anxiety and anxiety in general. So that was my introduction to exposure therapy. And we're going to do a little mini version of those learnings that I gained during my time at McLain. And then we're going to talk about ways that I have applied it on my old life. If you Like I am someone that's anxious. I don't know where to start. Those are some good ways.
Practice, being vulnerable with someone practice doing something like karaoke, or you have to go out of your way to do something that's uncomfortable. Like, again, I have to go back to how much anxiety. This gave me, like, I would, almost refused to sing, Happy Birthday. I mean, one of my friends stand up with me, there was a full
YouTube thing. I think I lip-sync, like, I hated this with every ounce of my being, but you gotta overcome that anxiety and then the other one doing things in social situations. Chelation that you wouldn't normally do, especially when you're never going to see those people. Again is a really great way to overcome that social anxiety. Okay? So first thing we've talked about, is what you can use exposure therapy for. I am someone that likes to do this holistic approach to emotion.
So whenever I explaining zaidi and depression to people that haven't experienced before, like, imagine you are fearful, but it's on an extreme overwhelming scale that is impacting or everyday functioning. So that's on the same Spectrum. Like fear and anxiety, both can be explained in terms. These basic emotions that we all experience, like, fear and apprehension. So the same thing is true for exposure therapy. It has been clinically proven to be really effective for OCD
social anxiety. Generalized, anxiety disorder. These really extreme overwhelming, versions of rumination, intrusive, thoughts, extreme, emotional intensity. And it also works for these smaller scale instances of anxiety. Overwhelm apprehension, Etc. So, it's almost spectrum and If you're like, well, I have some anxiety, but like I definitely don't need OCD treatment.
If that is a barrier for you, trying this, whenever that kind of emotional resistance comes up, I always like to say, all that that means is that there's a greater chance that this will work for you. There's a greater chance. This will be effective because it is clinically proven to work within populations that are debilitated by their OCD or social anxiety. It's also going to work for that fear. You have about giving that big presentation coming up or making new friends.
So basically Therapy is used for phobias. It's used for generalized anxiety, social anxiety, avoidance OCD, all of these different things and the idea with all of this diagnosis is that there's some amount of fear and that fear is leading to avoidance. And so whether that's a situation, an object and activity, thought and emotion, Etc. There's fear there and then there's a void ends.
And when we avoid things, that make us anxious, they could exponentially worse, the anxiety, the fear of the avoidance builds over time and then it's even more challenging. Challenging to overcome that anxiety. So again, just like I mentioned where if you're like I have some anxiety but it's not debilitating. Go use exposure therapy right now because you're going to avoid all of the pain and suffering that comes when we avoid our emotions and they amplify and intensity.
What's also really cool is that the most effective treatment for OCD is exposure and response, prevention therapy. So, what we're going to talk about with this, this key principle of exposure therapy is what is used in clinical settings to treat OCD. So we know it works, we know it's Active for this CBT cycle of our thoughts, influence our emotions influence, our behaviors, and then it all
repeats. And so that shows up in phobias, that shows up in anxiety, it shows up in OCD, and so exposure therapy works across the board. So, we do want to give the caveat in the disclaimer, that if you are anxiety is becoming debilitating. It's interfering with your quality of life. It's interfering with your relationships. Your ability to show up for work school, Etc, and it's been going on for a long time. It can be really emotionally unsafe to do, exposure therapy,
and that's why people. We'll go to therapy. They get support. I did a lot of exposure therapy with help of therapist for a long period of time. I still will write exposure hierarchies with a therapist. So if you're like, this feels really overwhelming the thought of even thinking about this thing. I'm avoiding is debilitating work with therapists, have them help you out with the exposure therapy process. And there are therapists that specialize specifically in
anxiety, OCD and exposure. So go find a clinician that specializes in that area and they will help walk you through this. Step by step, this is more. Or if you are feeling anxiety avoidance Etc and you think you can overcome it, but you're not exactly sure. How or there are smaller levels of anxiety that you'd like to
work throughout this is for you. But if it's completely debilitating overwhelming, impacting every aspect of your life, definitely work with a clinician because if you are not able to successfully cope with the emotions that come up or the thoughts are too overwhelming or it leads you to avoid more again the anxiety, just amplifies and then it's even more challenging to work through. Through those emotions.
So we don't want to try it, exposure therapy, then get cold feet back out and then we're even more anxious than we were when we started, that would be really productive. If you think that might happen work with a therapist that will help you through it, they will help you make the most amazing exposure hierarchy and support you through it. But I feel like I think I got this. I just need help understanding how this works.
This is for you. So the first thing going to talk about is the CBT cycle in CBT, there is this amazing triangle Circle. However you want to describe it where we understand that our That's impact our feelings and they impact our behaviors and just keeps going in a cycle. So if you wake up and you're like, I am feeling depressed and then you don't get out of bed and then your thoughts are, like I have nothing going for me, I'm so unmotivated.
I hate everything about life and then you feel worse about yourself and then you don't get out of bed for longer, then you avoid your responsibilities. You can see how that cycle continues to go in a loop and make the situation worse. If you interject at one point, whether it's your behavior, your thoughts are your feelings? You are able. To adjust the rest of the cycle. So one skill that we've talked about a lot in the podcast is opposite actions.
The idea is that you take the opposite of what you're feeling. And so if you are feeling depressed and you would like to avoid all of your friends and family members, you don't want to do anything. You want to stay in bed, you want to avoid your responsibilities or can do the exact opposite. So you go to coffee with a friend, maybe go to class, maybe you call someone and say, I'm really not feeling great today. Can we go hang out spend time
together? I really just need to get out of my own head, that behavior is then going to impact your thoughts, which How they had a loop? Like I'm nothing going for me. Everything sucks. This is terrible. This is overwhelming. And of course, the feelings of feeling depressed, unmotivated, overwhelmed, Etc. So exposure therapy is building off of that idea where when we adjust the behavior or we adjust the thought, or we adjust the feeling and we'll get through
that. When we talk about an exposure hierarchy, which one of those, you are kind of inserting yourself into you, are able to break the cycle of the really intense anxiety, the overwhelming thoughts and the Sure, of avoidance. So, what is exposure therapy? The basic idea of exposure therapy is that you are exposing yourself to the thing. That is causing anxiety, fear Etc, and a small safe doable way. You are slowly building yourself up to the thing that makes you
so anxious. And so overwhelmed. And as you build Mastery over those thoughts, those behaviors those things that are making you anxious as you get more effective with your ability to cope with the emotions that arise. Is to shift the thoughts, you're having, you're able to overcome the anxiety, the phobia, the thought pattern, Etc. There are four types of exposure therapy. I originally learned three of what we're getting a little technologically savvy nowadays.
So, the first is in Vivo exposure. So, you are directly immersing yourself in the thing that is making you anxious. So if you are scared of being in public, you are struggling with leaving your home, you are struggling with going out socializing with others in Vivo. Oh, exposure would be leaving your home and going outside into the world. Imaginal exposure is when you are mentally going through the process of doing the thing that
makes you anxious. So even though you're still in your house, you are closing your eyes, you're almost meditating and you are visualizing yourself leaving the front door. Locking the door, getting in the car, driving to a coffee shop. Placing your order talking to someone, getting your coffee, sitting there for 30 minutes, and if you really, truly are
very anxious about something. Going through that mental process, will bring up a Sighs. Your heart rate will probably increase you'll be breathing a bit more rapidly. It is an overwhelming experience to expose yourself even mentally to that thing that is making you anxious.
This is also used with people that struggle PTSD or how to traumatic experience, doing that imaginal exposure to the thing that is causing all of those intense emotions is also something that is done in a clinical setting. The second to last one is called interoceptive exposure. I'm sure I'm saying that wrong. But the idea here is that you are exposing yourself to the Magical experience of anxiety.
Because if you've ever had a panic attack, you know, that one of the most overwhelming parts of that experience is like, I can't breathe, my thoughts, were going insanely fast. My heart rate is going so quickly, like, am I physically, okay, is something wrong? What's going on? And so that can, sometimes almost become a trigger and itself for more anxiety because you're like, I don't wanna have another panic attack. This is my worst nightmare to be
this anxious. And so, once your heart rate starts increasing, once your breathing is more rapid, you get more anxious because of those physical symptoms. We're doing at Aricept of exposure. You are kind of getting yourself in the physiological space of a panic attack. So maybe you're doing some, some Sprints, and you are sitting with the increased heart rate, increased breathing rate that similar to what you experience when you have anxiety. Maybe you're breathing through a
straw. So, you know what? It feels like to have shallow breaths and not fully be able to catch your breath. Maybe you are going through the similar thought, patterns, that sometimes come up when you are having social anxiety or worried about leaving the house, right? So that's of exposure. You're exposing yourself to the
experience of being anxious. And as we talked about how an exposure hierarchy and going through that exposure process works, you are again building Mastery over your ability to cope with the situation. The last, I think this is the newest version of exposure therapy is. You can use Virtual Reality, so you're like fancy-schmancy. You have a whole VR headset. Maybe you're like, okay, I'm
scared of leaving the house. I'm going to have someone else film a VR experience in me, leaving the house and then I'm going to watch that. Of course it's going to make you anxious because it feels like you're really going through that experience. But a great example here is if you're afraid of flying, maybe you are going to watch a vlog of someone going to the airport and going through security and boarding the plane. And on the plane, that will
probably bring up some anxiety. So, to work through that, in that safe environment and that less intense version of anxiety can be super effective. So those are the four types of exposure therapy. And, again, underlying theme. There is that you are exposing yourself to the thing that's making you anxious. Us in a small manageable way, that is still slightly, pushing you outside of your comfort zone. You are effectively coping with the emotions and thoughts that arise.
And you are working your way through it, and you were doing the opposite of what you want to do, which is a void and run away. Today's episode is brought to you by teen counseling. If you haven't heard of teen counseling, it is better helps branch of online therapy specifically for teenagers. They've over 14,000 licensed therapist within their Network and they help you work on things
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persisted. The link will be in the show notes and start therapy or continue on your therapy Journey today. So if you are doing exposure therapy, the way that I would approach this in the way that I've approached this in the past is I would do an exposure
hierarchy. So what I would do is I would write down the thing that I am most afraid of and most scared of. So if it is public speaking or going to say, my biggest fear that I am going to have to navigate as I have to give a speech at the end of the semester and I'm absolutely terrified. If I dive so much anxiety. The idea of doing that makes me want to like throw up faint runaway, drop out of college. If that's your fear, that is going to be at the top of the
hierarchy. That's what we're working up towards and you're going to work yourself backwards. You could say, like, what is one step below? Giving a speech, maybe it is being in the room, watching other people, give their presentations and knowing that you probably are going to be next. So maybe you go and sit in on another lecture where people are giving presentations and you mental are like, okay, I'm ready to give my presentation. And let me pull up my slides.
Let me emotionally deal with this overwhelming experience and maybe below that is practicing giving a presentation to a friend or two, you're going through the process. You are saying everything that needs to happen, Etc. And then below that, maybe you're giving the presentation in an empty classroom before that. Maybe you're prepping for the presentation, you're creating your slides, you're preparing your speaker notes before that, maybe you are watching someone else's presentation.
You are not mentally. Ali. Like okay, my presentation is next but even just watching someone else do it, can kind of bring up that anxiety. So you're doing that in person then maybe it's watching a video of someone that is giving a presentation. And the Very lowest freebie, almost if you will is mentally going through the process of giving the presentation. Again, this will be different for everyone.
It's so subjective, but you're going to make this hierarchy that feels very doable to move from one step to the next. You don't want to be like, okay, one day I'm imagining I'm giving a presentation, the next one. I am. Live podcast. Like that would be the worst way to structure your exposure hierarchy, because you're going to get too anxious about the idea of giving a whole life podcasts to an audience. You're going to avoid the situation and the anxiety is going to amplify.
So what I would do is make this really comprehensive list and you want to have these three things you can check off. Yes, I did this or no, I didn't. We don't want to be vague. Like I'm going to expose myself to the feeling of being anxious. Do you want to be really specific? Are you exposing yourself to the physiological sensation of being like, Short of breath. Are you mentally going through
the thought process? That might come up, when you're giving your presentation, are you imagining the worst possible scenario? That could happen and coping through that worst-case scenario in your head? We're being very specific and we again, it's a comprehensive list of like freebie. I can do that. It'll make me a little bit anxious, but I got this to, oh my gosh, this is the end goal and I'm very anxious about
navigating this experience. So once you have your exposure, hierarchy is what Halt. You are going to begin the process of doing these small exposure therapy steps. And this is why it's great to work with a therapist because I full accountability here. I've made multiple exposure therapies for myself this year, whether it's like making new friends or talking to people are doing things that make me anxious. There are my bullet journal. They're written down. Have I done them?
Nope, I go back home and I see my therapist. She's like house exposed to. There we go. I'm like have a really dumb so this is why it's great to work with the clinician or someone that can hold you accountable and also be there to support you throughout the process. But it's totally possible to do by yourself. Especially if it feels emotionally safe to do so, and you can do things like having a friend hold you accountable. So, maybe the thought of going to the gym is like, so
anxiety-provoking for you. So you asked a friend. Hey, do you want to go walk on the treadmill with me? It's a pretty low ball, like easier item or more like oh can you go to the gym with me and get a smoothie, don't even work out. Just go and get a smoothie or maybe you're walking past the gym and you're like to a friend. Hi. Do you want to go on a walk? We can go. However, and then you strategically walk past the gym, but you're going with a friend.
So they're there to hold you accountable and you're not backing out, and avoiding the situation. So, there's some ways to hold yourself accountable, but it can be very personal thing. You almost need, like, expose yourself to the idea of being vulnerable and telling people that you're anxious and you're trying to overcome this anxiety that itself. You're exposing yourself to those anxiety, shame. Whatever emotions.
Come up, can be intense. And so that also you're doing a little bit of exposure therapy there, but now getting in to the details. So we have our exposure therapy. We have our first item. What you're going to do before is we're going to really go above and beyond with coping ahead. This is a DBT scale within the ABC scale. So it's from the emotion regulation, module. We're working to long-term overcome and maintain our emotional stability.
So with the Copa head scale, we are planning exactly how we're going to cope with the situation. When you're coping ahead, you are describing the situation and as much detail as possible, we're not even doing the imaginal part of it, but on a piece of paper. Like I'm going to be imagining what? It's like to expose myself to this anxiety.
So if we use the example of going to the gym with a friend, that's what's making you anxious but you're like big long-term goal is to work out three days a week. So like going to the gym with a friend is maybe you in the middle of the hierarchy like maybe first third. So it's not quite like I'm just walking by the gym or I'm just getting a smoothie. We've already done those things. We've conquered them. We've overcome the anxiety. We didn't avoid them. We did it.
Amazing. Saying this is maybe a third or fourth on the list. So you're like my friend and I are going to go to the gym. I have someone there to support me. We're just walking on the treadmill. We're not going to do anything crazy. We're not going to try to navigate lifting weights or asking someone what workout are you doing? Like none of that. You're just gonna walk on the treadmill for 30 minutes and then you're leaving. So you're going to describe the
situation, you're texting. Your friend, to make the appointment to go to the gym. You are walking to the gym. With your friend, you're probably feeling some anxiety, you then, get to the gem pan. We have to swipe our cards and so, you're swiping your card in. Maybe you're filling up your water. Bottle. You're getting to the treadmill. You're putting the treadmill on. What are you going to do on the treadmill? Are you listening to music? Are you watching a show or you
talking to your friend? What are you doing? And you're also going to describe what potential anxiety might come up for you. Are you interests while you're on the treadmill? Are you anxious before you enter the building? Like what are the pain points? You're being super specific and you're also using the check the
facts scale here. So if you're like what's going to make me most anxious is when I fall off the treadmill, On my face in front of everyone and the whole gym laughs at me and kicks me out and tells me that I'm never again allowed to go to the gym. We gotta check the facts are, that's probably not going to happen. Yes, you could fall off the treadmill but the most likely course of events. If that happens, we won't. We oh my gosh. Are you okay?
Like, can I help you? You're going to get back on the treadmill. You're going to keep doing your thing. No one is gonna ban you from the gym for the rest of your life. We're checking the facts. We are writing down the possible situations that might happen but
we're also being realistic. You Also, again, listing the emotions and the thoughts that might come up, that would lead to the anxiety and that typically cause avoidance or you having like a thought pattern about not feeling like you are active enough to be at the gym or is not going to the gym for you associated with maybe body image like what body image, thoughts are coming up for you and how do you cope with those?
So we're describing the situation, we're naming, the events were naming, the emotions were naming the thoughts, and then you're going to decide what coping skills you're going to use. When so if I was going to the gym, I would really lean on distraction. I'd be like okay I know that I really have a lot of time to be in my head and get overwhelmed once I'm on the treadmill.
So I'm going to scroll on Tech talk because that's super engaging and it's really hard to ruminate in your head when you're watching Tech talks and people are dancing. The sounds are going. The trend is happening. So I know the second I get on the treadmill. I'm going to scroll on Tick-Tock and that's what I'm going to do and at least in the short term that will distract me. I'm also going to practice deep breathing. I don't want to be totally out of breath while.
Can the treadmill. So I'm going to paste my breathing with my walking. So these are some examples of skills you would use. So, go through see what the most overwhelming things. That would happen in this anxiety-provoking situation are and you're going to plan, what coping skills, you are going to use. And this, you're even going to mentally go through it.
So, again, this is a little bit more challenging with imaginal exposure because you're planning it, and then the anxiety provoking situation is imagining it. But if you're doing something in person, you're physically going somewhere, and doing this activity that provokes, Anxiety. You're going to imagine yourself doing it again. Even exposure therapy is built into the DPT skill, cope ahead. So, you're imagining yourself doing it.
You're imagining yourself coping with the skills, you're imagining rewiring, the thoughts that are coming up, you're imagining doing your distraction, doing your deep breathing, getting through the situation effectively, and then you always want to make sure that after these really intense, emotional situations, you're recharging. You are doing some self-care. You're going to pick, okay? Next week is my next item on the exposure therapy hierarchy or
not. Let me bang out all 10 of these exposures right at once we always want to get back to our Baseline after being in the situation that is making us anxious. So that's an example of how we would use the Copa had scale and then we actually go through the motions. We actually do the thing. So we do the skills that we plan, we were going to use, we problem solve in the moment if we need to we're going to lean
on distress tolerance skills. If this is something that makes you super anxious, but if you really do take the time to properly, do a cope ahead and plan how you're going to cope with this situation. Ation, what might come up? What, exact coping skills? I'm going to use even write yourself a list put on your notes app.
If I have a thought spiral about body image, I am going to distract with this thought instead of and say these affirmations, if I start breathing really quickly because I'm getting anxious, I'm going to paste my breathing to my walking. If my thoughts are just going crazy, I'm an open Tick Tock and scroll 45 minutes. So if you truly do that process of outlining what skills, you're going to use and what triggers might come up, I don't necessarily think you will have to do.
As much problem solving in the moment. Because you've done that in advance, you've made it pretty easy for yourself. You just have to do the thing. We can't avoid avoidance is easy but again it amplifies the anxiety long-term. So once we have gone through the motions, we've done the thing that makes us anxious. We've used our skills. We've overcome that anxiety in a way that is safe. That is not overwhelming, that's not causing us to avoid more. We can check that item off the
exposure therapy hierarchy. And as we keep moving up this hierarchy, G over time, our level of fear or level of avoidance, our level of anxiety will decrease. This is the beauty of exposure therapy, every single time. You check off this thing on your hierarchy. You are getting better. Using your coping skills. You are getting better and navigating anxiety, thought, patterns avoidance, whatever it is, and it gets easier with
time. Yes, you are continuing to expose yourself to things that make you more anxious, but you also have more practice using your skills in the moment and coping with the That's making you anxious. And so we just went through like an extreme really comprehensive way to cope with something that makes you super anxious will probably be like a big phobia, or a big sense of avoidance, but you can also do this for smaller things.
So if you're like, I get super-anxious being in a new situation, I never am the first one introduced myself. I'm always like kind of hanging back and letting other people do the talking, you're like, it's a long-term goal for me to become more comfortable in those situations. Maybe that doesn't have a lot of anxiety for you, but you know, that easy. Our option is to avoid. So you've just always done that in the past.
So maybe you would have like two or three items on your exposure hierarchy, like I'm going to go ahead and make conversation when I order my coffee at the coffee shop. Next time, I'm going to pretend to ask someone for a phone charger. Pretend like, oh my gosh, my phone just died. What time is it something like that? And then you work yourself up to being like, oh, hi, I'm Sadie. Nice to meet you. So you don't have to do this, like, 12-step plan.
You're just doing that. When there's extreme avoidance, there is a pattern of extreme anxiety and Avoidance. So that is exposure therapy. And again, if you are feeling the urge to avoid, if you are feeling anxiety, your little like mental signals to be like, okay we gotta do some exposure here because the more you lean into that anxiety and the more you avoid, the more it will build with time.
So whether that is anxiety, let's go back to the beginning of this episode, where we talked about being vulnerable, maybe it's social anxiety, maybe two things like doing karaoke in front of other people. Maybe it's a phobia you have, maybe it's a general, something you want to. Oh, improve on. But you've been avoiding because it does bring up some anxiety. There's this whole spectrum of things that cause anxiety and intense emotions, and you can use exposure therapy across the board.
Just like a quick little recap exposure therapy in a nutshell. You are identifying the thing that makes you anxious, whether it's an activity, an interaction, a behavior, whatever it is you're identifying that thing. We were deciding whether you're going to do in Vivo just when you're actually going and doing an action related to the thing that's make you anxious. Whether you're Imagining
yourself doing that thing. Or when you are doing interceptive, which is when you are exposing yourself to the feelings of anxiety, you're going to make a hierarchy of each. Stop is like, okay, a little bit out of my comfort zone, but I can do this. You're starting with an easy item. Let's make things easy for yourself. Give yourself a freebie that you're like. Yeah, I can do that. Let's get some momentum going.
And the last thing is the thing that you are most anxious about and again when you're choosing your biggest thing, check the facts. Like, if we go to the gym example, you're like I am most anxious. I have the biggest phobia falling off the I'd nail your biggest thing that you're working up to is not going to be falling off the treadmill. Dealing with that anxiety. It's probably not going to happen.
Sure. We like to be prepared for every worst-case scenario, but you don't really have to fall off the treadmill that I'm so glad I have the coping skills to deal with this, in case this ever actually happens in my life, but like, going to the gym consistently and using the treadmill would probably be your highest item on the exposure hierarchy. So, writing down the exposure hierarchy, it's manageable it pushes outside of our comfort
zone but Still doable. We're checking things off with each action, item, with each part of the exposure therapy, hierarchy, or coping ahead. We're planning with coping skills. We're going to use. We're building Mastery over the thoughts, emotions and behaviors. We are beginning to trust ourselves because we know I can cope with this. I got this. I've done this before and I can
get through this anxiety. And then you keep building yourself all the way up to the thing that makes you most anxious, you overcome that anxiety, you stop avoiding and it's amazing. It really just is so effective in. So many areas of life because when we're not doing something a lot of the times, it's emotional resistance, or anxiety, and exposure therapy is a great way to combat that. So I know that was so much
information. I truly hope that made sense because it can be a little bit overwhelming, it can be a lot. Probably gives too much detail at some points and skeet over some things at other points. But I'll leave links in the show notes about what is exposure therapy, how it works, all of the things, but it's been one of the greatest Tools in my tool kit for me Mental Health. Eyes. And so I hope it helps you now as well.
And again, if this feels really overwhelming and like too much, make sure to Loop in a clinician, go to therapy, get support, that is totally 100%. Okay, if you enjoyed this episode of, she persisted, as always, make sure to leave a review share with a friend or family member. I can share on social media tag me. I'll make sure we post give you a little shout-out. I really, really hope this was helpful and I'll see you next
week. Thank you so much for listening to this week's episode of jeepers. Today if you enjoyed make sure to share with a friend or family member, it really helps out the podcast and if you haven't already leave a review on Apple podcasts or Spotify, you can also make sure to follow along at at she persisted podcast on both Instagram and Tick-Tock and check out all the bonus resources content and information on my website.
She persisted podcast.com, thanks for supporting, keep persisting and I'll see you next week. Today if you enjoyed make sure to share with a friend or family member, it really helps out the podcast and if you haven't already leave a review on Apple podcasts or Spotify, you can also make sure to follow along at at she persisted podcast on both Instagram and Tick-Tock and check out all the bonus resources content and information on my website.
She persisted podcast.com, thanks for supporting, keep persisting and I'll see you next week.